CHA SuperShow in review ;- )

     Well, yesterday was the day my friend Susan accompanied me to the CHA SuperShow, as it exists now. Susan is not a paper crafter. She is a quilter, but she came because she is my friend and knew I wanted company and she is always up for that. We both basically knew were it was, but exact directions, escaped us, so from her driveway, I called my DH and got his input. Off we went and after exiting the tollway (let me explain here, that first you get off at the O'Hare airport exit, but from there you exit to a street before you actually reach the airport, that was why we didn't have actual directions, because this is a confusing exit), and finally getting to the street level we drove a bit and then realized, this isn't right. We tried to figure out our way back and after awhile, we were sure we didn't really know how to get to the convention center from where we were. We phoned my husband and interrupted his meeting (it was an informal one), he had the people there trying to figure out where we were going. I said, " I know the address of where we are going, it's where are we now, that's the problem." We eventually got there and since Susan and I are both practical, we had left plenty of time and weren't late at all.

     We procured our tickets to Splitcoaststampers cupcake reception. I will try to post photos of the wonderful gifts that were in the goodie bags we received there. They were so generous. Then we went to the Lion Yarn booth and they were showcasing a new loom, (think the modern version of the kind you used to make pot holders with long ago) by Martha Stewart that will be coming out soon. It has modular pieces and can be made to the size to make place mats down to about 2 inches on each size. That's the size I used to make this flower at the Make and Take.

     A bit later we did the Make and Take at the My Favorite Things booth. They were soooo generous and allowed us to keep the stamp set we used. The ribbon project was the first, of it's type project, that Susan ever made. She was happy that we weren't the first group, so she got to watch the people before us, but she did a wonderful job and was faster than me. Thankfully, she brought an extra pair of reading glasses, that were 1 times magnification, because the brads holding the pin backs on were so small, I couldn't see to open them ;- )

     Our next Make and Take was probably the one from Crafter's Companion. Susan was very impressed with their pearlized cardstock. (One of my planned purchases, though I wasn't getting it until later, so I wouldn't have to carry it.) We used the new boxer board to make this, as well as the Ultimate Crafter's Companion.

We stopped by Archiver's booth and made this.

     Flowersoft gave each person a different little tag or picture, that they could try out some Flowersoft on. We enjoyed talking to the people working at this booth for awhile. Here is mine. 

     One of our great discoveries was a company called RaisinBoat. They are about a year old and they have such wonderful images. Their booth was full of examples made with their stamps and we were told that they had sooo many more in the gallery on their site. Each image had a great variety of examples, all done very differently and all done without a design team. The very unique thing about this company is they don't only sell their stamps, but they also have a rental plan, that works like NetFlicks. What a great idea. You get such a variety of stamps and your cards will always look different.  You should check out how it works and see their interesting designs here. One of the lines I remember from one of their retro sets was something like "May all your clouds be hairspray." I just thought that was so original. The people we talked to at the company were extremely friendly as well. We also, found that they had a Make and Take as well. The stamp was a graphic one from a set called "Splash."

     Upon returning to Crafter's Companion to get my paper, I was happy to run into Sara. She is the beautiful brains behind The Ultimate Crafter's Companion, Rock-a-block, the Boxer, Envelobox Creator and The 5-1 Clevercut Rotary Paper Trimmer. If you've never been to their site, you should check them out too. Both the US and the UK site, because if you sign up on the UK site there are some great member digital freebies monthly.  www.crafterscompanion.com/ and www.crafterscompanion.co.uk/

     Well, like I said I'll post info on the free goodies we got from the Splitcoaststampers reception next time and our trip home story. Yes, there was a story there too, ha ha. This was a long post, but I hope you found it informative. Oh, I forgot to mention, www.stampsbyjudith.com. She was another creative and wonderful person we met who was doing demos. No, Susan's not going to jump into papercrafting. She likes it, understands why I do it, but knows there is only so much time in a day and has 3 unfinished quilts at home ;- ) Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment if you have any time left ;- ) Have a blessed and playful weekend. 

It's a heat wave.

     Sorry, I should have had this posted on Monday, but it's been way too hot to touch a computer. I called friends, watered flowers and  read a book instead ;- ) I finally relented, late last night and put the air conditioning on, so we could sleep. The poor puppy was very thankful, being a Norwegian Elkhound and all.

     Todays card is for a little boy who is turning 2. I used the Imagine and Nursery Tails to make this one. I used the image from Nursery Tales in layers, changing the first layer from pink print to green print, since it was for a boy and popped up the layers. I added gel pen details and Diamond Glaze to add more interest. I also added a mat layer, using the rectangles (8 1/2:11 ratio) from the images resident on the machine and filled it with a pattern from the Nursery Tales cart. Sentiment is from Hero Arts.

  Click to enlarge

     The inside sentiment was created digitally using Print Shop. The font is SNF Jester Play from Scrap n Fonts. You can find them here if you are interested. The number 2 was cut 2x at 2 inches from the Birthday Bash cart. One time I filled it with yellow on the Imagine and one time with the pattern I used on the background mat. I stacked and popped them, inking the edges to cover the white.  I added the birds I had left from the front (I had cut and 2 sets of birds and clouds).

     What would I have done differently? I might have worked more on details on the front, but again it was  (and is) HOT and I was afraid I wouldn't do a very neat job. I felt that the image looked a bit flat, that's why I added the gel pen details, that I did and might have added more. I also needed it to dry, so that I could mail it the next morning. If it were for a girl, I definitely would have added more glittery bling ;- )

     Well, I hope if you are in this heat too, that you are enjoying refreshing drinks and staying cool. I plan on enjoying the air conditioning at the CHA SuperShow later in the week, since this heat wave is expected to last past the weekend. I know it won' be the same as in the past, but I hope to have some fun anyway. Maybe the movie theater too. Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment, it will make me feel cooler ;- )

Male graduation card.

     Today's card is another graduation card, only this one is for a male. We have a graduation party to attend this weekend. One of the cards in the earlier posts is for his sister and the party this weekend is for both of them. She is graduating High School and he is graduating 8th grade. To see her card (if you missed it and are interested), click here. I know in some areas, 8th grade graduations aren't celebrated. Here, depending on where you go to school, you child may attend the same school from Kindergarten (or pre-school) right through 8th grade, with the same kids, making it a bigger event, then if they changed schools at the middle (or junior high school level).

     The papers are from Paper Studio's Graduation Paper Pack and the stickers are from Stampendous Class a'peal. I cut the name with Cricut's Plantin Schoolbook cart in the standard setting 2 times and popped it up. I embossed the sentiment with silver glitter embossing powder.

     On the inside, I just matted the sentiment, I wrote digitally with Print Shop using the LD Dabble font from Lettering Delights and I stamped the stars (Northwoods) and embossed them using silver glitter embossing powder.

     I think it turned out nice, though the star on the right should be over to the right a bit more, but I have a tendency to just eyeball things.

I still have a wedding card to do and a few birthdays coming up. I can't believe the CHA Supershow is the week after next, though it's not the same this year. I was looking forward to taking a few workshops, but there aren't any. I guess it will just be make-and-takes and shopping. What I've really wanted to see were the booths in the real  CHA. Maybe some day.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment. I love to know what you think and that you stopped by. Hearing from you is a real pick me up ;- ) Have a joyous week!